Before the Battle

Reckoning 3/20

--Taira--

"You can fight with an axe?" I asked Shira when we were finally alone at the end of that hectic day.

In my tent we had at least some privacy, though the voices and footsteps of the soldiers on guard outside still reached us through the canvas.

Darkness fell, and our temporary shelter was lit only by a flickering electric torch.

"Never tried it before," he shrugged. "But you should be able to fight with anything you have."

"I'm sure that man could handle the axe perfectly, and you took him down in seconds."

"I certainly didn't want to wait for him to show me how good he was," he grinned.

That made sense. "That's why you ended the fight so quickly."

"I wanted to play with him longer, but in the end I decided not to take any chances. He looked much stronger than me, he could have taken me by surprise. It was safer not to prolong it."

I nodded in agreement and watched as Shira removed his top clothes and began to wash himself in a metal basin filled with water from a nearby stream.

"He didn't stand a chance against you," I said.

He looked over his shoulder at me and said with a grin, "I am after all the best warrior in the country."

Then he turned back to the basin, scooped cold water into his hands and washed his face and neck.

I moved closer and placed my palms lightly on Shira's bare shoulders. His hair was still tied on top of his head and I toyed with the idea of letting it down for a moment. But eventually my attention was drawn to his exposed neck and I pressed my lips to it.

I watched with satisfaction as he paused, his breath catching slightly as he felt my hot mouth tasting the icy drops of water from his skin.

I neared my lips to his ear and whispered, "I know another thing that no one else can match you for."

Teasingly, I wrapped my arms around Shira's body and snuggled against him as I lightly traced my fingers across his firm chest before moving a little lower to the fastening of his trousers.

He caught my daring hand and turned, smiling, those amazing blue-grey eyes watching me with amusement.

So many months had passed but it still took one look at him to make my pulse quicken and one touch to make me think only of how amazing it felt to have him hold me in his arms and show me that in bed he was the one in charge.

I stared at his lips and eagerly pulled Shira towards me so that I could taste them.

Which I didn't have time to do.

"Um..."

I turned at the voice.

One of my soldiers had entered the tent. He shifted nervously, obviously disturbed that he'd caught us both in this somewhat compromising situation.

The fact that Shira was not just my advisor was at least suspected by most of the soldiers and tolerated in silence. Nevertheless, we tried to keep our relationship on a completely professional level throughout all the officialities. This, by the way, was one of Chairwoman Hannara's conditions when I insisted on Shira working with me.

It didn't seem like an unreasonable request, so I agreed. It wasn't that we were keeping anything secret, we were just restricting the displays of our mutual affection to the privacy of my tent.

"Is something wrong?" I asked, pulling myself out of Shira's arms and turning to the young soldier.

Obviously he wouldn't have disturbed me this late if it was something trivial.